Ons Jabeur failed to back up her strong win over Danielle Collins after the former world No. 2 lost to Yulia Putintseva in the Adelaide International round-of-16.
On Tuesday, the Tunisian tennis star – who concluded her 2024 season after the US Open due to a shoulder injury – made a strong to the Australian WTA 500 tournament after beating the world No. 11 in two sets.
But on Wednesday, Jabeur didn’t play anywhere near that level as she served poorly throughout the match and the Kazakh took advantage of it to complete a 6-2 6-4 win.
During the match, the three-time Grand Slam finalist made just 59 percent of her first serve points and also won just 33 percent of her points on the second serve.
Also, she faced 11 break points and lost her serve four times in an hour and 21 minutes of play.
Going into the match, Jabeur was a perfect 3-0 against Putintseva and had never lost a set in their meetings.
But in Adelaide, it was the Kazakh who dominated and routinely won.
For a place in the Adelaide semifinal, the world No. 25 plays No. 6 seed Diana Shnaider.
How Putintseva saw off Jabeur?
After starting the match with back-to-back breaks and a 3-0 lead, the Russian lost one of her two breaks in the fourth game.
However, she remained calm – broke the former world No. 2 again in the seventh game for a 5-2 lead – before serving out for the first set in the following game.
It didn’t take long before Putintseva went up by a set and a break after taking Jabeur’s serve in the very first game of the second set.
In the ninth game, the world No. 25 missed out on her first match point on the Tunisian’s serve but didn’t have any issues closing out the match on her serve in the 10th game.
Tennis World USA